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Located at the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way, Downtown Berkeley station is situated near the center of the City of Berkeley. It is the primary station for those travelling to and from the University of California, Berkeley, which is one block to the east. As a result, it is also used by patrons of events taking place at the University, such as concerts or lectures, and especially football games and other athletic events, including those sponsored by the MyBART service. Because this Station is an underground station there is poor cell service unless underneath the center of the station. Cell boosters have not been rolled out in the Berkeley Subway creating a dead zone from Ashby to north Berkeley.

Downtown Berkeley opened on January 29, 1973, as part of an extension from MacArthur to Richmond, with service southward to Fremont until the opening of the Transbay Tube and subsequent service to San Francisco later that year.[3]

In the mid-1990s, BART changed the name of the station from simply "Berkeley" to "Downtown Berkeley" in an effort to minimize confusion between this station and North Berkeley. The station is still often referred to as Berkeley in train announcements. The station has been the site of many BART Alert protests in response to occurrences on the political scene.

Like most underground BART stations, Downtown Berkeley has two levels: a mezzanine containing the faregates and an island platform with two tracks. Access to the station is provided by five street-level entrances on Shattuck Avenue, with two at Addison Street and Allston Way each and one at the southwest corner of Shattuck Avenue and Centre Street. The escalators at the latter are topped by an icosikaitetragonal rotunda that covers passengers entering and leaving the station from inclement weather.

There is also a valet bike parking facility outside the station at street level and is operated by Alameda Bicycle. It used to be placed at the top of an unused stairway from the mezzanine level to the platform below. The stairs were built so that an additional entrance could be opened if needed in the future, and had never been used by passengers.